Wooster Group to present free performances of highly praised show 'The B Side'

Wooster Group to present free performances of highly praised show 'The B Side'

From left: Philip Moore, Eric Berryman and Jasper McGruder will present four performances of “The B-Side: ‘Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons’ A Record Album Interpretation” as part of an upcoming residency in the University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative.

“Music seldom sounds more exciting than when you’re introduced to it through the ears of a passionate fan. That’s the experience, heightened to the point of transcendence, that’s on offer in the Wooster Group’s extraordinary ‘The B-Side: ‘Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons.’”

Ben Brantley

The New York Times

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Wooster Group, an innovative company
of theater and media artists, will present four free performances
of the critically acclaimed “The B-Side: ‘Negro
Folklore from Texas State Prisons’ A Record Album
Interpretation” as part of its upcoming residency in the
University at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative (CAI).

Chosen by Ben Brantley of The New York Times as one of the best
shows of 2017, “The B-Side” is based on performer Eric
Berryman’s interest in the album “Negro Folklore from
Texas State Prisons,” recorded in 1964 by CAI co-director
Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the James Agee
Professor of American Culture at UB.

The album features work songs, blues and spirituals performed by
a group of inmates in Texas’ racially segregated prison
farms. Berryman plays the album and transmits the material live, by
channeling, via an in-ear receiver, the voices of the men on the
record. Accompanying him are Jasper McGruder and Philip Moore.
Berryman also provides context from Jackson’s book
“Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues.”

Performances of “The B-Side” will take place at 7:30
p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8, and Friday, Feb. 9, and at 2 p.m. on
Saturday, Feb. 10, and Sunday, Feb. 11. All four shows will
be in the Black Box Theater in UB’s Center for the Arts.

The Wooster Group develops and presents work in New York City at
The Performing Garage at 33 Wooster St. Their national and
international touring productions have received Bessie and Obie
awards for individual productions and for sustained
achievement.

With “The B-Side,” the Wooster Group returns to an
artistic form that it has explored throughout its 42-year history:
Working with record albums as source material for original theater
pieces. These works have included “Nayatt School”
(1978), “L.S.D. (…Just the High Points…)”
(1984) and, most recently, “Early Shaker Spirituals: A Record
Album Interpretation” (2014), a piece based on a 1976 album
of Shaker songs recorded by the sisters of the Shaker community in
Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

Berryman saw “Early Shaker Spirituals” in 2015 and
brought the album “Negro Folklore from Texas State
Prisons” – which had been in his record collection for
years – to the group, and together they collaborated on
“The B-Side.”

“After I saw ‘Early Shaker Spirituals,’ I was
inspired to have the black convict work song tradition of these men
honored in the same way,” he said.

Reviewing “The B-Side” in The New York Times,
Brantley wrote “Music seldom sounds more exciting than when
you’re introduced to it through the ears of a passionate fan.
That’s the experience, heightened to the point of
transcendence, that’s on offer in the Wooster Group’s
extraordinary ‘The B-Side: ‘Negro Folklore from Texas
State Prisons.’” Peter Marks of The Washington Post
hailed “The B-Side” as “galvanizing, hypnotizing,
ravishing,” concluding, “this is an hour of listening
for any audience anywhere that wants its spirits lifted even as its
conscience is stirred.”

In addition to their schedule of free performances, the Wooster
Group’s residency from Feb. 4-11 will also include several
workshops and public discussions. Details on these programs are
still being worked out, but once finalized the information will be
available here.

The Buffalo presentation of the Wooster Group’s “The
B-Side” has been made possible by major support from
UB’s Creative Arts Initiative, College of Arts and Sciences
(Robin G. Schulze, dean), James Agee Chair in American Culture
(Bruce Jackson), Edward H. Butler Chair in English (Cristanne
Miller), James H. McNulty Chair of English (Myung Mi Kim), and
David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters (Steve McCaffery).
Significant support has also been provided by The Robert and
Patricia Colby Foundation, Riverrun (Patrick Martin, president) and
Rigidized Metals (Rick Smith, president).

About the Wooster Group

The Wooster Group makes original works for the theater. The
company integrates visual media, sound, architectonic design and
text with live performance. Founded in 1975, it has remained at the
forefront of experimental theater for decades.

The group’s founding members were Spalding Gray
(1941-2004), Elizabeth LeCompte, Jim Clayburgh, Ron Vawter
(1948-1994), Willem Dafoe, Kate Valk and Peyton Smith. Wooster
Group director Elizabeth LeCompte has received fellowships from the
MacArthur Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation, and the
National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished Artists Fellowship
for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater, as well as the
Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and the 2016 Dorothy &
Lillian Gish Award. Director Kate Valk has received the Guggenheim
and TCG/Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships, as well as the
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Performing Artist Award. The group
and its members have also won nine Obie Awards, six Bessie Awards
and the National Endowment for the Arts Ongoing Ensembles
Grant.

The Performing Garage in the Soho neighborhood of lower
Manhattan is the Wooster Group’s permanent home and
performance venue. The group owns and operates the Garage as a
shareholder in the Grand Street Artists Co-op, which was originally
established as part of the Fluxus art movement. The group regularly
tours its productions throughout the United States and
internationally. For more information, visit www.TheWoosterGroup.org.

The CAI is a university-wide initiative dedicated to the
creation and production of new work upholding the highest artistic
standards of excellence and fostering a complementary atmosphere of
creative investigation and engagement among students, faculty,
visiting artists and the community.

Through its Artist-in-Residence program and its innovative,
interdisciplinary offerings for students, CAI is raising the
profile of UB and Buffalo in the world of artistic expression and
revitalizing the initiative’s proud tradition as a leader in
contemporary art.